”Alright. Okay, I got someone. Have at it.” Kaylee said, looking off into the trees and smiling.

”Are they living or dead?” River asked.

”Living. Last I heard at least.” Kaylee supplied, looking over at River a little curiously and then looking ahead where they where going.

”Male or female identified?” River asked, being politically correct apparently.

”Male.” Kaylee supplied.

”Johnny Nolen?” River asked.

”How’d you know?” Kaylee stopped and turned to her in surprise.

”He’s your favorite male identified singer, and you looked like music when you started the game.” River told her. ”Your turn to guess?” She asked expectantly.

”Um, sure.” Kaylee shook her head a little. River really was somethin’ sometimes. To have picked up on something like that about her. She really… really must have paid a lot of attention to her. Or maybe River just naturally did that for everyone? For some reason she kind of liked to think maybe she was special though. ”Got someone?”

”Uh-huh.” River said as they started walking again.

”Living or dead?” Kaylee asked.

———-

In bed the next day, after sundown. There had been a rainstorm, starting yesterday in the evening, lasting all night and through the day. It was still comin’ down outside, could hear it, a muffled rata-tat-taping on the shuttle in the background. The sound had soon just sort of faded into the background for Kaylee though so she didn’t much notice it no more.

”If we’re stuck here, for good I mean, what d’you think we’d do?” Kaylee asked, laying next to River in bed. They’d gotten ready for bed an all, but they still had a light on next to the bed and had been talking about this and that for a while.

The more she and River talked, the more they got comfortable just talking, it seemed like. Once you got her to open up, once she felt like someone really heard her and was willing to let her be who she was, broken bits and all, Kaylee figured, River really seemed to open up. Kaylee felt special that she was the person who could give that to her. An… the way River would look at her when Kaylee was the one talkin’, like what she was sayin’ mattered more than anything else in the worlds. It made her feel… it was a really nice, warm sort of feeling. She couldn’t remember anyone paying that much attention to her before, at least not to the things she said, her opinions and feelings about things and everything.